Current Writer in Residence
Denise O’Hagan
We are delighted to announce the Don Bank Writer in Residence for 2024 is Denise O’Hagan.
Denise O’Hagan (MA) is a Sydney-based editor and poet, born and raised in Rome. With a background in academic book publishing in the UK and Australia, she offers editorial support and mentoring for independent authors through her own imprint, Black Quill Press, and has edited and published a memoir, a historical fiction and a poetry anthology.
She was poetry editor with The Blue Nib until 2020. Her poetry is internationally published. Among her awards are the Dalkey Poetry Prize (first prize), the International Proverse Poetry Prize (second prize), the Robert Graves Poetry Prize, the ACU Poetry Prize, and the WB Yeats Poetry Prize, Australia (commendations).
Her second poetry collection, Anamnesis (Recent Work Press 2022), which explores the role of memory in the world we create through language, was a finalist in the Eric Hoffer Book Award (USA) and the Eyelands Book Awards (Greece) and shortlisted in the Rubery Book Award (UK). She is currently working on a third collection.
She continues to be inspired by the words of American poet and essayist, Ocean Vuong: ‘The work of the writer is to not so much nail anything down but to make space for the endeavour of curiosity, to widen the theatre of wonder.’
Denise has also just won the 2024 NSW Poetry Prize as the first prize winner. You can read her poem by clicking here.
We look forward to working with Denise on community programs in the year ahead and wish her the best of luck in completing her next poetry work!